At 2/13/2016 9:49:02 PM, Mhykiel wrote:At the end of a post Ruv will sign off with "I hope this helps". I think what he really means to say is IMEO : in my expert opinion.

I would challenge you or Ruv to a sing-off any day.

Marrying a 6 year old and waiting until she reaches puberty and maturity before having consensual sex is better than walking up to
a stranger in a bar and proceeding to have relations with no valid proof of the intent of the person. Muhammad wins. ~ Fatihah
If they don't want to be killed then they have to subdue to the Islamic laws. - Uncung
There would be peace if you obeyed us.~Uncung
Without God, you are lower than sh!t. ~ SpiritandTruth

Marrying a 6 year old and waiting until she reaches puberty and maturity before having consensual sex is better than walking up to
a stranger in a bar and proceeding to have relations with no valid proof of the intent of the person. Muhammad wins. ~ Fatihah
If they don't want to be killed then they have to subdue to the Islamic laws. - Uncung
There would be peace if you obeyed us.~Uncung
Without God, you are lower than sh!t. ~ SpiritandTruth

At 2/14/2016 7:57:58 PM, Mhykiel wrote:It's creepy you took time from your life to post that.

Funny, I was thinking the same thing about this whole thread...

touche

Speaking of taking time from your life... I don't spend much time monitoring Science and Religion for new threads... so imagine my surprise when I saw this one, some day or so after it was first created.

Had I seen it just a little earlier in the morning, I fear I'd have woken Mrs Draba with my hooting and gasping.

Mhykiel, you may not realise it but I think the quality of your critical thought is immensely important. Not so much to me since I could easily ignore any member should I ever wish, but to you, and to the people in your life who depend on you. I think it's important that your thought is well-informed, but that you also have the dignity to exercise, test and be accountable for your own independent judgements too, whether I personally agree with them or not.

To that extent, if I offer information whose sole or principle or sole purpose is to help inform a judgement I know first-hand to be difficult, it is meant to help. As much an act of faith in you and your intellect as it is respect for reason and evidence, it has no greater purpose. Anyone who takes diligent effort to research and test a complex issue deserves the respect of that endeavour, and in my eyes, diligent research or considered analysis are the most respectful gifts we can ever offer the serious concerns of another mind.

That's what it means when I say 'I hope it helps.' I seldom say it ironically (I doubt I've ever said it that way to you), and if I think a position is deluded, deceitful, ignorant, lazy or conceited, that's exactly what I'll say, as I think you know. :) Since I do that, I'm clearly not afraid to be disagreeable, so there's no need to hide disagreeability behind false affability and inject passive into my aggressive. :)

I very much want you to have a bright, curious, engaged, informed life, Mhykiel, enjoying the respect of your peers and the dignity of your own diligent endeavours, whatever views you hold. I want your knowledge and reason to empower you, and through your evident intellect and good humour, help empower others.

That's what I mean when I say 'I hope it helps.' Absent a morally-ordered universe, our world is only as good as we make it, and that's only as good as others help us to be.

'I hope it helps' is the 'God bless you' of a rational, secular humanist, and if you ever doubt that, ask me directly and I'll tell you again. :)